Market watch: Karachi bourse falls along with regional markets

Benchmark index down27 points.


Express May 07, 2011

KARACHI:


The Karachi bourse witnessed a bearish spell on Friday along with regional peers on the back of fall in international commodity prices.


The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100-share index recovered initial trading losses and closed down only 27 points or 0.22 per cent at 11,879.96 points.

Oil prices went into free-fall on Thursday, diving more than 10 per cent to close below $100 a barrel, the biggest daily drop in price since the 2008 financial crisis.

Falling international oil prices kept local oil stocks under pressure as Oil and Gas Development Company finished the day down 1.2 per cent, followed by Pakistan Oilfields 0.9 per cent and Pakistan Petroleum 0.4 per cent.

National Bank of Pakistan stole the show and hit its upper circuit breaker during trade over reported interest by large government institutions, said JS Global Capital analyst Jawad Khan. The scrip, fourth on the volumes chart, closed up Rs2.13 to Rs52.29.

Trade volumes rose slightly to 64.66 million shares compared with Thursday’s tally of 58.32 million shares.

Talks with the International Monetary Fund, which were rescheduled and moved to Dubai, are likely to dictate future direction of the market, said an analyst.

Shares of 359 companies were traded on the last trading session of the week. At the end of the day, 125 stocks closed higher, 133 declined and 101 remained unchanged. The value of shares traded during the day was Rs2.05 billion.

Jahangir Siddiqui and Company was the volume leader with 7.78 million shares, gaining Re1 to finish at Rs6.12. It was followed by Azgard Nine with seven million shares, gaining Rs0.98 to close at Rs5.57 and SilkBank with 6.47 million shares, firming Rs0.13 to close at Rs2.8.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2011.

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